Kell May Have Given Up Seat, but He Kept Office

When Ernie Kell was elected the city’s first full-time mayor last year, he gave up his 5th District council seat and his vote, but one thing he did not give up was the district field office he has maintained since 1975 in a renovated storage shed.

Kell says he kept the Wardlow Park field office, where two of his staff members work, as a matter of convenience to constituents in that part of the city, which is more than a five-mile drive from his downtown City Hall office.

That Kell retained the office even after his 5th District successor on the council opened his own field office a couple of miles away strikes at least a few mayor-watchers as a bit odd.

“It’s hard to understand. It seems like favoritism,” contended Sid Solomon, president of a citywide group, Long Beach Area Citizens Involved.

Expressing surprise that Kell had not moved out of his old district headquarters, Solomon said it was inappropriate for the mayor to have just one field office. Either he should have them throughout the city, or he should have none at all. “I don’t think it’s going to look good on his record,” Solomon said.

Successor Doesn’t Mind

Les Robbins, elected last fall to fill Kell’s vacant council seat, said he did not mind that the mayor had retained the office at Wardlow Park. “He said he had a lot of ties in the area and wanted to maintain contact with people and organizations (there),” Robbins said.

However, Robbins noted that because he could not have the Wardlow Park office, “I had to do some scrambling to find a place.” He wound up in a pleasant but small room in a city recreation building in El Dorado Park, where one of Robbins’ legislative aides spends four days a week.

All but three of the council’s nine members hold some sort of district office hours. Some, like Robbins and Warren Harwood, have a legislative assistant working virtually full time out of the office. Others, like Tom Clark, send an assistant out a few hours a week.

They use city buildings and like Kell, pay no rent for the space. Kell, who has a third staff member working downtown in addition to the two in Wardlow Park, has to pay only for the telephone and incidental costs at Wardlow. The costs are part of his office budget.

The mayor bristled at suggestions that he is using the Wardlow Park office to maintain his political base in the northeast part of the city. “That’s nonsense,” he declared, adding that he is considering opening another field office in northwest Long Beach, also somewhat removed from City Hall.

“We’re decentralizing services,” he said.